Sunday, January 29, 2006
Installing OpenSolaris on VMware - Draft
So you want to try out OpenSolaris but you don't have a machine available. Then VMware is what you need. Even if you do, VMware is great tool to get help you get started with OpenSolaris and can be a great tool to help you on your kernal hacking efforts. VMware workstation 5.5 has “experimental” support for Solaris but I have found that OpenSolaris actually runs quite well with it. This article will take you through the steps to get OpenSolaris up and running on VMware and assumes you are new to VMware and OpenSolaris. This article will also be helpful if are just interested in Solaris on VMware.
First, you need to get yourself a copy of VM Workstation. It will run on Windows and some Linux distros. You really don't need super impressive hardware to get started. My first test machine has only 512 mb of memory and is limited with disk space which requires me to run off an external USB drive. In both cases the performance is tolerable. But of course the more memory, disk, and cpu you have the better!
You may be wondering, so what is VMware? VMware is an application that emulates a PC or runs as a virtual machine (VM). So basically what happens is that when you run OpenSolaris on VMware it acts as if it is own dedicated box when actuality it is running as an application on Windows or Linux. Hardware such as NIC and video cards are emulated which can be your savior if you hardware isn't supported yet.
Once VM Workstation is installed start off by creating a new virtual machine (File -> New-> Virtual Machine...). On the first selection just select the typical configuration, after all if you need custom then you don't need this article! Now check “Sun Solaris” and select “Solaris 10 (experimental)” or if you are lucky enough to have a 64-bit machine “Solaris 10 64-bit (experimental)”. The next step will ask where you want to save your VM settings and log files. Think about this for a second before you accept the defaults. On Windows, the default is in the “My Documents” folder which isn't always the best choice. It is a good idea to keep the VM's disk image file with the settings so this folder is going to get big. Another thing to think about is organization. You will probably getting hooked on this virtual machine thing and you'll want to keep it organized. Think also about a good naming scheme. For now a good name would be “OpenSolaris_base” and put it on a partition with lots of space. The next step is to determine what kind of networking you will setup. The best choice is bridged. With this choice Solaris will be just another node on the network. However, if you are unable to assign your instance its own IP address or if you want to move around the VM to different networks then select NAT. Now you need to determine how much disk space you want to allocate. The default is 8.0 gigs but go ahead and double that since you'll need some space to do a build and such. I recommend that you do not allocate all the disk space now unless you have massive free disk space and you want to get every little bit of speed out of the VM. But just remember that having all the disk pre-allocated might get in the way later when you start doing things like cloning images. Also, select “Split into 2 GB files” if you plan on moving the VM around since it will make easier to zip it up or put it onto DVD-R's.
Before you start the VM, you may want to edit the virtual machine settings that were just built. Particularly for the amount of memory allocated to the vm especially if you plan on building OpenSolaris. Give it as much as you can spare.
Now get yourself a copy of Solaris Express. Go ahead and get the DVD version even if you don't have a DVD. Plus, there is no need to burn it to a DVD-R. Once you have the Solaris Express ISO file go back into the VM settings. Select the CD-ROM and choose “Use ISO image” and enter the path to the ISO file. Since VMware is emulating a CD-ROM device it just mounts the ISO and the VM will think it is a physical drive.
Once you have ISO mounted it is time to start up the vm. You'll notice the screen looks a lot like your PC when it starts up.
Eventually you'll get to the Solaris install screens. To start off you'll be setting up networking on the vm's network interface, pcn0. One thing to keep in mind is that if you select DHCP and you are using the NAT networking scheme you'll need to edit the /etc/default/dhcpagent file to keep your hostname from getting screwed up once you have it up and running. After the network and time zone information is complete you'll be asked about the installer options. On the first screen just select “standard”. Next select “Manually eject CD/DVD” since you need a reminder to point to a new ISO if needed (but if you took my advice on the DVD you won't need to worry). You can select yes for automatic reboot if you want. The next screen of interest is the disk partitioning. First let Solaris use the entire disk. Then go ahead an let the installer do an auto-layout. It will ask you to select the file systems for auto-layout. I recommend one for / and one for swap if your new to this stuff. I really don't care for the way auto-layout sets things up but it is easy to customize its defaults. Just hit F4 and adjust accordingly. First of all the swap is probably too small if you want to do a OpenSolaris build. Plus the / slice is too small with /export/home taking up all the space. Since this is a test system here is what I do. I get rid of home slice and then set swap to something like 2048 MB then the rest to /. Here's a trick to do that if you don't want to do math. First set / to 0 then set it to the “Free” number on the last line. That is pretty much it and it is time to let the install run.
Now after the install completes you will run into your first problem. During the install, the screen is at a normal size with no problems but the first time Solaris boots up the screen is all squished up. Some how Solaris forgot what how things were setup during the install. So you'll need to run kdmconfig to straighten things out. What you'll have to do is log into the text mode before the login screen appears. If you miss it I suggest you log in to a CDE session, it will be a little easier to manage with the small screen size. Here you can reboot and try again or run kdmconfig from a maximized terminal window. The only caveat being you won't be able to test your new setup. So once you are at the command line run kdmconfig as root. The first choice you'll have is xorg or xsun. Both will work. If you're an Linux fugitive then xorg setup should be old hat. Otherwise just select xsun just to get started with because it is a little easier. You can play with setting up xorg later. Once you have xsun setup scroll all the way down to the second to the bottom option on the video device list and select “XF86-VMWARE Vmware SVGA virtual video cards”. Next select the first MultiFrequency monitor, the one that is 100khz and can do 1600x1200 @80hz. For the screen size just leave it at 17-inch. Now you can pick a resolution. The minimum you want to mess with is probably 1024x768 but think about the screen resolution you are currently running on the host desktop and adjust accordingly. Check the settings you just entered and then save and test the configuration. You will get a chance to try out the resolution if it looks good then accept the settings otherwise keep trying to adjust things. If the VM screen seems way too big then try to change the monitor type. Don't forget the keyboard and pointing device settings if yours is different than the defaults. Give your new VM a reboot to make sure the changes worked. If all went well you'll see a properly sized login screen.
Before you do anything else make sure you make a snapshot of the VM you just created. This is very important because when you start playing with OpenSolaris the chances of you brickifying a system are quite high. Optionally before you take a snapshot you can create a default user account first. The easiest way for the novice is to login and then run “smc” from the command line. But once you have the new account setup and tested the shut the virtual machine down. Then click on the “Clone this virtual machine” icon. You have the option of a full clone or linked clone. For the first image I suggest is a full clone so you can put the backup in a nice and safe place. That way one day in the future when get a little too cocky and really screw things up you'll have a fall back.
Any time you login to a graphic desktop don't do anything else until you disable the screen saver. Otherwise you'll have a locked VM that won't unlock. There is a bug in the current builds with the screen saver on certain video cards and VMware is one of them. Even when the bug gets fixed you really don't want to be running a screen saver in VMware anyway.
That's it to get the base Solaris Express install up. Next step is to get the OpenSolaris source or BFU and install it. I highly recommend, no actually I INSIST that you clone your working VM before you BFU it. Even if you are an expert at the build process you never know why kind of bug is waiting for you in the latest release. Remember that OpenSolaris is essentially experimental and Solaris on top of VMware is also experimental.
If you need more help with OpenSolaris I suggest you visit the OpenSolaris and the VMware forums. Both are filled with smart people willing to help. Also check on the VMware workstation help. Believe it or not is has information specific to installing Solaris on VMware.
First, you need to get yourself a copy of VM Workstation. It will run on Windows and some Linux distros. You really don't need super impressive hardware to get started. My first test machine has only 512 mb of memory and is limited with disk space which requires me to run off an external USB drive. In both cases the performance is tolerable. But of course the more memory, disk, and cpu you have the better!
You may be wondering, so what is VMware? VMware is an application that emulates a PC or runs as a virtual machine (VM). So basically what happens is that when you run OpenSolaris on VMware it acts as if it is own dedicated box when actuality it is running as an application on Windows or Linux. Hardware such as NIC and video cards are emulated which can be your savior if you hardware isn't supported yet.
Once VM Workstation is installed start off by creating a new virtual machine (File -> New-> Virtual Machine...). On the first selection just select the typical configuration, after all if you need custom then you don't need this article! Now check “Sun Solaris” and select “Solaris 10 (experimental)” or if you are lucky enough to have a 64-bit machine “Solaris 10 64-bit (experimental)”. The next step will ask where you want to save your VM settings and log files. Think about this for a second before you accept the defaults. On Windows, the default is in the “My Documents” folder which isn't always the best choice. It is a good idea to keep the VM's disk image file with the settings so this folder is going to get big. Another thing to think about is organization. You will probably getting hooked on this virtual machine thing and you'll want to keep it organized. Think also about a good naming scheme. For now a good name would be “OpenSolaris_base” and put it on a partition with lots of space. The next step is to determine what kind of networking you will setup. The best choice is bridged. With this choice Solaris will be just another node on the network. However, if you are unable to assign your instance its own IP address or if you want to move around the VM to different networks then select NAT. Now you need to determine how much disk space you want to allocate. The default is 8.0 gigs but go ahead and double that since you'll need some space to do a build and such. I recommend that you do not allocate all the disk space now unless you have massive free disk space and you want to get every little bit of speed out of the VM. But just remember that having all the disk pre-allocated might get in the way later when you start doing things like cloning images. Also, select “Split into 2 GB files” if you plan on moving the VM around since it will make easier to zip it up or put it onto DVD-R's.
Before you start the VM, you may want to edit the virtual machine settings that were just built. Particularly for the amount of memory allocated to the vm especially if you plan on building OpenSolaris. Give it as much as you can spare.
Now get yourself a copy of Solaris Express. Go ahead and get the DVD version even if you don't have a DVD. Plus, there is no need to burn it to a DVD-R. Once you have the Solaris Express ISO file go back into the VM settings. Select the CD-ROM and choose “Use ISO image” and enter the path to the ISO file. Since VMware is emulating a CD-ROM device it just mounts the ISO and the VM will think it is a physical drive.
Once you have ISO mounted it is time to start up the vm. You'll notice the screen looks a lot like your PC when it starts up.
Eventually you'll get to the Solaris install screens. To start off you'll be setting up networking on the vm's network interface, pcn0. One thing to keep in mind is that if you select DHCP and you are using the NAT networking scheme you'll need to edit the /etc/default/dhcpagent file to keep your hostname from getting screwed up once you have it up and running. After the network and time zone information is complete you'll be asked about the installer options. On the first screen just select “standard”. Next select “Manually eject CD/DVD” since you need a reminder to point to a new ISO if needed (but if you took my advice on the DVD you won't need to worry). You can select yes for automatic reboot if you want. The next screen of interest is the disk partitioning. First let Solaris use the entire disk. Then go ahead an let the installer do an auto-layout. It will ask you to select the file systems for auto-layout. I recommend one for / and one for swap if your new to this stuff. I really don't care for the way auto-layout sets things up but it is easy to customize its defaults. Just hit F4 and adjust accordingly. First of all the swap is probably too small if you want to do a OpenSolaris build. Plus the / slice is too small with /export/home taking up all the space. Since this is a test system here is what I do. I get rid of home slice and then set swap to something like 2048 MB then the rest to /. Here's a trick to do that if you don't want to do math. First set / to 0 then set it to the “Free” number on the last line. That is pretty much it and it is time to let the install run.
Now after the install completes you will run into your first problem. During the install, the screen is at a normal size with no problems but the first time Solaris boots up the screen is all squished up. Some how Solaris forgot what how things were setup during the install. So you'll need to run kdmconfig to straighten things out. What you'll have to do is log into the text mode before the login screen appears. If you miss it I suggest you log in to a CDE session, it will be a little easier to manage with the small screen size. Here you can reboot and try again or run kdmconfig from a maximized terminal window. The only caveat being you won't be able to test your new setup. So once you are at the command line run kdmconfig as root. The first choice you'll have is xorg or xsun. Both will work. If you're an Linux fugitive then xorg setup should be old hat. Otherwise just select xsun just to get started with because it is a little easier. You can play with setting up xorg later. Once you have xsun setup scroll all the way down to the second to the bottom option on the video device list and select “XF86-VMWARE Vmware SVGA virtual video cards”. Next select the first MultiFrequency monitor, the one that is 100khz and can do 1600x1200 @80hz. For the screen size just leave it at 17-inch. Now you can pick a resolution. The minimum you want to mess with is probably 1024x768 but think about the screen resolution you are currently running on the host desktop and adjust accordingly. Check the settings you just entered and then save and test the configuration. You will get a chance to try out the resolution if it looks good then accept the settings otherwise keep trying to adjust things. If the VM screen seems way too big then try to change the monitor type. Don't forget the keyboard and pointing device settings if yours is different than the defaults. Give your new VM a reboot to make sure the changes worked. If all went well you'll see a properly sized login screen.
Before you do anything else make sure you make a snapshot of the VM you just created. This is very important because when you start playing with OpenSolaris the chances of you brickifying a system are quite high. Optionally before you take a snapshot you can create a default user account first. The easiest way for the novice is to login and then run “smc” from the command line. But once you have the new account setup and tested the shut the virtual machine down. Then click on the “Clone this virtual machine” icon. You have the option of a full clone or linked clone. For the first image I suggest is a full clone so you can put the backup in a nice and safe place. That way one day in the future when get a little too cocky and really screw things up you'll have a fall back.
Any time you login to a graphic desktop don't do anything else until you disable the screen saver. Otherwise you'll have a locked VM that won't unlock. There is a bug in the current builds with the screen saver on certain video cards and VMware is one of them. Even when the bug gets fixed you really don't want to be running a screen saver in VMware anyway.
That's it to get the base Solaris Express install up. Next step is to get the OpenSolaris source or BFU and install it. I highly recommend, no actually I INSIST that you clone your working VM before you BFU it. Even if you are an expert at the build process you never know why kind of bug is waiting for you in the latest release. Remember that OpenSolaris is essentially experimental and Solaris on top of VMware is also experimental.
If you need more help with OpenSolaris I suggest you visit the OpenSolaris and the VMware forums. Both are filled with smart people willing to help. Also check on the VMware workstation help. Believe it or not is has information specific to installing Solaris on VMware.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Solaris a Great OS for Java Developers
When i started learning Java in 1997 the typical scenario was to develop Java on PC running Windows, or if I was lucky Linux, and deploy to a server running Solaris. This was common since Solaris on the desktop wasn't really very common.
Today Solaris makes a fine desktop especially for Java Developers. Here are a few reasons why. First both 1.4 and 1.5 come bundled with the OS. Along with that so does ANT, the second most important tool after the JDK for working with Java. Almost any tool a developer need can be easily added. Just about all the major IDE/Editors will work on Solaris. Java just runs great on Solaris, but go figure it would. And don't forget DTrace, one of the greatest tools to come out in awhile, it works quite nicely with Java.
Interestingly enough Solaris comes the the Java Desktop System which is Sun's version of Gnome. It is pretty much the same thing as JavaScript, not much to do with Java but someone wanted to capitalize off of the Java name.
Today Solaris makes a fine desktop especially for Java Developers. Here are a few reasons why. First both 1.4 and 1.5 come bundled with the OS. Along with that so does ANT, the second most important tool after the JDK for working with Java. Almost any tool a developer need can be easily added. Just about all the major IDE/Editors will work on Solaris. Java just runs great on Solaris, but go figure it would. And don't forget DTrace, one of the greatest tools to come out in awhile, it works quite nicely with Java.
Interestingly enough Solaris comes the the Java Desktop System which is Sun's version of Gnome. It is pretty much the same thing as JavaScript, not much to do with Java but someone wanted to capitalize off of the Java name.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
OpenSolaris - VMWare - JDS: Screen Saver
If you are running OpenSolaris on VMWare make sure you shut off the screen saver in JDS before you do anything else. I have had a few instances where the screen saver locks the screen and will not unlock. I haven't figured out the pattern to duplicate the bug yet but running a screen saver in VMWare isn't really a good idea anyway.
Other than that, OpenSolaris runs like a champ on VMWare. I hope VMWare will someday soon fully support Solaris on VMWare and even better VMWare on Solaris!
Other than that, OpenSolaris runs like a champ on VMWare. I hope VMWare will someday soon fully support Solaris on VMWare and even better VMWare on Solaris!
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Patching Zones with updatemanger
The updatemanger is a great tool for lazy people like me. When there is a new patch available an icon on my desktop blinks, I click on, and tell it to install it. The problem is that this handy little tool doesn't work with zones. But there is still an easy way! As root run this:
smpatch download
This puts a bunch of jars in /var/sadm/spool. Now unjar them all
foreach $jarfile (*.jar)
>jar xf $jarfile
>end
You can delete the jars and the META-INF directory if you want. Now you can install the patches. It is probably a good idea into single user mode, some patches require this, so type:
init 1
Now you can install the patches:
foreach $pfile (1*)
>patchadd $pfile
>end
The more zones you have the longer this will take so find something to do for awhile if you have plenty of patches.
I clean out the patches when they done but I save them just in case:
zip -rum9 /archive/patch_archive.zip 1*
smpatch download
This puts a bunch of jars in /var/sadm/spool. Now unjar them all
foreach $jarfile (*.jar)
>jar xf $jarfile
>end
You can delete the jars and the META-INF directory if you want. Now you can install the patches. It is probably a good idea into single user mode, some patches require this, so type:
init 1
Now you can install the patches:
foreach $pfile (1*)
>patchadd $pfile
>end
The more zones you have the longer this will take so find something to do for awhile if you have plenty of patches.
I clean out the patches when they done but I save them just in case:
zip -rum9 /archive/patch_archive.zip 1*
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Cheap Fail Over
Zones in Solaris can give you a poor man's fail over. My environment doesn't require extreme reliability so this won't work for everyone. What I do is setup a zone on another physical server identical to the production zone, with the exception of the ip and autoboot is set to false since I leave it dormant when not in use. If the production server needs to goes down then all I need to do is change the ip in zonecfg and sys-unconfig the zone. The sys-unconfig is needed for all the stuff in /etc. It is the easiest and most full proof method.
Zones for security
Another good practice for Solaris Zones: Always put Internet facing applications in a zone. It is just one more layer in the security onion.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Some Solaris Zones Practices
This week I get to play system administrator. I am moving around and consolidating servers. All of the servers are J2EE web/applications servers on Sparc Solaris. Using Solaris zones really makes life easy. Here some of the practices I found helpful.
-Put as much memory as you can afford/fit into the server. So far I have not seen issues with CPU or I/O resources but there never seems like enough memory.
-Don't run any servers in the global zone, there is no need to.
-Share files between zones via NFS. I set the global zone up as the NFS server and the other zones mount it. If speed is an issue consider your centralized storage (i.e. SAN)
-Let the global zone deal with routing settings
-Keep the zone simple. I found that the simpler I keep the changes to the zone the easier it is to copy the zone somewhere else.
-Put as much memory as you can afford/fit into the server. So far I have not seen issues with CPU or I/O resources but there never seems like enough memory.
-Don't run any servers in the global zone, there is no need to.
-Share files between zones via NFS. I set the global zone up as the NFS server and the other zones mount it. If speed is an issue consider your centralized storage (i.e. SAN)
-Let the global zone deal with routing settings
-Keep the zone simple. I found that the simpler I keep the changes to the zone the easier it is to copy the zone somewhere else.
